Reason 0009 : Singaporeans Cannot Speak or Write Properly

One of the things that bug me the most is that Singaporeans in general cannot speak or write properly. This is despite the fact that we were trained to be bilingual from a very young age. You see university graduates who cannot string a proper sentence together without creating spelling or basic grammar mistakes, people interviewed on TV who cannot speak in complete Mandarin sentences without including some choice English words in, and others who choose to speak in Singlish and broken English.

Don't get me wrong, I fully support Singlish as a mark of Singaporean identity. I also think we should speak proper English or Singlish when appropriate. I especially applaud those heartlanders who try to speak English even though they might not have had much education. At least they are trying to speak a new language on top of speaking their dialects fluently. It only bugs me when youths and adults who have had the privilege to receive a formal education are too lazy to speak and write properly. For example, "three" is pronounced as "th-ree" and not "tree". "Their" is pronounced as "th-air" and not "dee-are". Lastly, it is "Singapore I-dole", not "Singapore Idle".

I shudder especially whenever I hear the "their" being mispronounced. I think Singaporeans are the only people in the world who pronounce it this way, including MPs, radio DJs etc. It really boggles my mind why the Education Ministry has let this mistake go on for decades.

Also, with the proliferation and increased use of blogs, sms, and the Internet, people are getting more and more lazy with punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

Just think about it, if you cannot speak English or your second language properly and you cannot speak a dialect as well, what does this show about you?